Opportunities for Crofting and Rural Development Post-Brexit

The Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) has sent
a post-Brexit agriculture and rural development policy position outlining
a vision for crofting to key government ministers and politicians emphasising
the opportunity for change.

“This paper sets out the current SCF position for agriculture
post-Brexit,” said Russell
Smith, Chair of the SCF. “We cannot
be definitive on a final position as the destination for the UK
is still far from clear. Nor does this paper discuss how these
aims are to be achieved as that is part of the negotiation process.

“What Scottish agriculture and rural development will look like
post-Brexit is on everyone’s minds”, continued Smith, “but we believe
that it is vital to maintain agriculture in the remote and less
favoured areas of the Highlands & Islands because of the public
goods it provides, including preservation of the landscape, environmental
protection, economic activity, population retention and quality
food production.

“There is a promised transition period where some
support will continue under terms of the European
Common Agriculture Policy potentially until 2022. So there will be a change to UK
agriculture and rural development policy. How much of that will
be devolved to the nations that comprise the UK is being contested,
but there will be some sort of Scottish policy needed and this
is the time to be forming clear objectives of what we want.

“Leaving the CAP provides the opportunity to have an agricultural and
rural development programme tailored to Scotland, encouraging more small-scale
land use, delivering high quality, high animal welfare, High Nature
Value food, with provenance we are proud of. We can move to a system
of using public money to deliver public goods through a shift in balance
from untargeted income-support payments to a targeted rural development
programme, giving fairer pricing for high quality produce, fairer payment
to producers and better use of public money. Such a system would allow
us to build in support for common grazings from the start so that more
use could be made of this important resource.

“Agriculture is at the
heart of crofting and crofting is vital to Scottish rural development”
Smith concluded. “This paper covers our current thoughts and we continue
to gather our members’ views. We are constantly meeting with the decision-makers,
representing crofters’ interests.”